hdparm -t /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64MB in 1.83 seconds = 34.97MB/sec

80 GB ata100 7200 rpm

My Pentium 200mhz, with 64 megs of RAM serving as my FTP, SSH and NFS server.

Maxtor 1.75 GB 5400 RPM on /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 5.17 seconds = 12.38 MB/sec

Western Digital 17 GB 5400 RPM on /dev/hdb

/dev/hdb:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64MB in 4.12 seconds = 15.53 MB/sec

Western Digi 4.8Gb 7200 in an Ultra Sparc 5:

/dev/hda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 11.00 seconds = 5.82 MB/sec

If I try -i it seg faults :P

My slow punk Dualie PPro 180:

Seagate 3.5Gb 5400:

/dev/hda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 9.43 seconds = 6.79 MB/sec

Samsung 60GB 5400

/dev/hde:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 43.9 seconds = 1.46 MB/sec

Woohoo, blazing!

I just realized I forgot the root password to the SS10... great...

Athy 800 webserver:

Maxtor 3.5Gb 5400
/dev/hda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 5.33 seconds = 12.01 MB/sec

IBM 13.5Gb 7200

/dev/hdb:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 3.11 seconds = 20.58 MB/sec

Pentium 1 200 little pokey server:

Mitsumi 2Gb 5400 (original harddrive, 5 years of coureous service)

/dev/hda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 7.03 seconds = 9.10 MB/sec

Quantum Fireball (say out loud, its fun), 3.5Gb 5400rpm

/dev/hdb:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 5.18 seconds = 12.36 MB/sec

Athy 700, buddy's server (root is good):

Maxtor 30Gb 7200

/dev/hda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 3.52 seconds = 18.18 MB/sec

Maxtor 40Gb 7200:

/dev/hdb:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 2.43 seconds = 26.34 MB/sec

Okay, that's it, no more or I'm moving on to laptops...

Cheers,

Finegan

if anyone is still interested, my results seem to be pretty different:

# hdparm -i /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

Model=Maxtor 6E030L0, FwRev=NAR61590, SerialNo=E10001QE
Config={ Fixed }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=60058656
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 udma6
AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled
Drive Supports : ataATA-1 ATA-2 ATA-3 ATA-4 ATA-5 ATA-6 ATA-7

# hdparm -Tt /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.82 seconds =156.10 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.28 seconds = 50.00 MB/sec

I don't know if any other variables effect this... I've got a lot of RAM on this box, so it's not like it had to swap to perform the test. It's got a decently fast processor as well. ::shrug::

Its all ATA controller for the most part, RAM can come into it on the very low end machines. You have an ATA 100 card running a drive at UDMA5, ATA100, that has to be a 7200... good rig. The drive can do 133 according to its parm though.

Everything I had in that huge list was running at a pio mode or mdma, except for that last one which was UDMA4, or ATA66. Still, 50 is a great speed for that rig.

Cheers,

Finegan

/dev/hda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.54 seconds = 41.56 MB/sec
/dev/hdb:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.46 seconds = 43.84 MB/sec

hda is a WD 80GB 7200rpm 8mb cache
hdb is a IBM 80GB 7200rpm

/dev/hda
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 4.25 seconds = 15.06 MB/sec

/dev/hdd:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 2.90 seconds = 22.07 MB/sec

80 gig IBM 7200RPM
root@PlanetExpress:/home/bax# hdparm -t /dev/hdb1

/dev/hdb1:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.49 seconds = 42.95 MB/sec
root@PlanetExpress:/home/bax#

Arggg, my chipset (Ali M1535D+) isn't fully supported, and I get awful speed

/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.56 seconds =228.57 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 15.42 seconds = 4.15 MB/sec
root@elf:/# hdparm -t -T /dev/hdb

/dev/hdb:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.53 seconds =241.51 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 23.23 seconds = 2.76 MB/sec
root@elf:/#

In Linux:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.99 seconds = 36.16 MB/sec

In Windows (using freshdiagnose from www.freshdevices.com):
Write Speed average =13.93 mb/s
read speed average = 15.06 mb/s

Half-elf, try this:

As su, in console:

hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
hdparm -d1 /dev/hdb

See if things radically speed up when you repeat the becnchmarking. This turns on DMA mode, and when I turned mine off with:

hdparm -d0 /dev/hdd
the second rate of 46 MB/sec ended up being 3.4 MB/sec instead. Lesson, try turning just the DMA on, to start with. Some distros default it ON, some default it OFF when they install.

Linux does not know my Intel (partly a Brookdale, but an EARLY ICH4 South Bridge) chipset either, but it does like DMA much better than non-DMA mode.

In your case, Xiphias, check and see if in device manager|hard drives the properties for the HDs show that they are NOT in DMA mode, then if you can change to DMA mnode try that-- this is in Windows. It sounds like you have a slightly older HD or HDs, or the CD-ROM or CD-RW if you have one is in DMA mode and the rest of the IDE needs to be. I would leave Linux alone.

On the other hand, if the HDs are in DMA mode when you first check, get them out of it with those results-- Windows can handle HDs not in DMA mode usually, and sometimes is faster that way. Linux does NOT do this, so I would not alter Linux's settings.

John.

WOOOW, now my benchmark is around 37mb/sec!!!
that's good enought for me If I was not using DMA, can you tell me what I was using? PIO?

now if I reboot, will I lost this setting?
Also, how can I know what's the speed of the DMA I'm using (there are DMA33,66,100,133 true?)
If I remember my hardware course right, 100 and 133 are UDMA mode, can I set this up? and can I know witout dangerous trying if my computer can handle this?

Um,

DMA tells the IDE controller to talk to the HD in a special way. it does not, with Linux, interfere with the UDMA\ATA settings, whihc can be looked like like this:

ATA0 or ATA1 (actually not UDMA, this is 8MB old IDE or less)
UDMA2 = 16.66 MB/sec
UDMA3 = 33 MB/sec
UDMA4 = 66MB/sec
UDMA5 = 100MB/sec
UDMA6 = 133MB/sec and hdparm does not grok this one yet.

Many mobos limit effective throughput to the speed of PCI-- which is usually about 33 MB/sec. And it looks like it is so in your case. My chipset actually allows 100 MB/sec throughput, but my stock kernel does not know how to handle a P4 chipset yet-- it thinks it is a P II (also used for early P III's) chipset. SO, in my case the max upper thorughput I could get in theory out of my drive is 66 MB/sec. But the HDPARM thing is calcing time from start of asking for request to dump buffer to tiem data is written to /tmp. So, since X is running while I do this I am losing a lot of efficiency adsn getting about 50% to 67% depending on drive-- and in fact I benched each partition and thus found out it even allows for seek time variation this way.

John.

PIO is only used usually for drives that are not 33 MB/sec or faster-- most drives that are that fast or faster set themselves to PIO4 when in what is called LBA mode and UDMA mode is 3 or better. PIO becomes something you do not need to play with given what happened.

John.

Some toshiba hdd (IDE)
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 4.85 seconds = 13.20 MB/sec